ABSTRACT
The evidential argument from gratuitous evil is widely considered the most formidable objection to theistic belief. Most theistic responses to the argument from gratuitous evil revolve around its factual premise, which is the claim that there is gratuitous evil. Most theodicies therefore follow the strategy of specifying either greater goods that are gained or worse evils that are averted by God's permitting evil. For Augustine, however, the Christian worldview entails that God is absolutely sovereign over all things and that no evil comes from him. Augustine offers a comprehensive vision of reality that brings together several strands of thought. According to Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, God's goodness and power guarantee that he will select that possible world from among all other alternatives that contains the optimum balance of good and evil. Some interpreters of Leibniz mistakenly think he maintains that God brought about that world containing the least amount of evil commensurate with there being a world at all.
